Around Australia and elsewhere, shark nets offer a false sense of security to beachgoers. And, they indiscriminately kill thousands of sea creatures, including endangered sea turtles, dugongs, dolphins, whales, rays and sharks.
My colleague Jeff Hansen, managing director of Sea Shepherd Australia told me that, “Shark nets don’t protect people from accidents as evidenced by recent shark encounters at meshed Australian beaches, including the shark incident in February 2009 at Bondi Beach when 33-year-old Glen Orgias lost his left hand after being bitten by an eight-foot white shark while surfing, the severe bite that 15-year-old Andrew Lindop received by a suspected eight and a half-foot white shark at Avalon Beach on March 1, 2009 and the major bite that surfer Glen Folkard also received by a bull shark at Redhead Beach, north of Sydney in January of 2012.”
Instead of nets that suffocate all sea life, Perth residents Leanne and Craig Moss designed an Eco Shark Barrier made from repurposed plastic that bounces sharks and all sea creatures off rigid barriers.
It’s time all governments worldwide embrace innovation and technology, and stop indiscriminately killing sharks and all sea life because our oceans are sick. In addition, despicable poachers and loathsome organized crime have annihilated 1.5 billion sharks for their fins since 2000 to make shark fin soup that sells for as much as $400 a bowl.
Eco Shark Barriers protect people from sharks, and sharks from people.
Please never eat shark fin soup, nor buy any cosmetic products with squalene (shark liver oil), or cowboy boots made of shark skin. Support Sea Shepherd Australia and The Ochre Project because they’re protecting the doctors of the sea – the sharks!
Earth Dr. Reese Halter’s latest book is “Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save our Oceans.”
